Principal Engineer, Infrastructure Platforms at Gitlab

This role is designed for a heavyweight technical leader with deep experience in cloud-native distributed systems and large-scale SaaS architecture. You should

Work type: remote

Location: Remote, Australia; Remote, Canada; Remote, France; Remote, Germany; Remote, India; Remote, Ireland; Remote, Israel; Remote, Japan; Remote, Netherlands; Remote, Singapore; Remote, South Korea; Remote, Spain; Remote, United Kingdom; Remote, US

Salary: $171,400 – $367,200/yr

Type: Full-time

Summary

This role is designed for a heavyweight technical leader with deep experience in cloud-native distributed systems and large-scale SaaS architecture. You should be a "force multiplier" who thrives on solving ambiguity and can jump between high-level strategy and hands-on coding in **Golang or Ruby**. Ideally, you have a proven track record of managing Kubernetes-based production environments at an organizational scale where reliability and cost-efficiency are paramount. The compensation is highly competitive, offering up to **$367,200/year** (plus equity and benefits) for a **fully remote** position. You’ll have the autonomy to shape the foundational architecture for a global platform used by millions. This isn't just a design role; you will be accountable for real-world production outcomes while mentoring senior talent within a high-performance, AI-driven culture that prioritizes asynchronous work and transparency. **You might be a good fit if you:** * Have successfully led the architectural evolution of a multi-tenant SaaS platform or massive distributed system. * Can influence technical direction across multiple teams without relying on direct management authority. * Are comfortable making "build vs. buy" decisions that impact long-term engineering velocity and spend. * Enjoy a "paved path" approach to developer experience, creating tools that help other engineers move faster and more safely.

Job Description

GitLab is the intelligent orchestration platform for DevSecOps. GitLab enables organizations to increase developer productivity, improve operational efficiency, reduce security and compliance risk, and accelerate digital transformation. More than 50 million registered users and more than 50% of the Fortune 100 trust GitLab to ship better, more secure software faster.

The same principles built into our products are reflected in how our team works: we embrace AI as a core productivity multiplier, with all team members expected to incorporate AI into their daily workflows to drive efficiency, innovation, and impact. GitLab is where careers accelerate, innovation flourishes, and every voice is valued. Our high-performance culture is driven by our [values](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/values/) and continuous knowledge exchange, enabling our team members to reach their full potential while collaborating with industry leaders to solve complex problems. [Co-create the future with us](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuZIb5zszQI) as we build technology that transforms how the world develops software.

Fortune 500® is a registered trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, used under license. Claim based on GitLab data. Fortune 100 refers to the top 20% ranked companies in the 2025 Fortune 500 list, published in June 2025. Fortune and Fortune Media IP Limited are not affiliated with, and do not endorse products or services of GitLab.

## An overview of this role

GitLab is seeking a Principal Engineer to set technical direction for our most critical infrastructure platforms. This role operates at organizational scale, owning architecture, solving complex systems problems, and driving initiatives that shape how GitLab grows, performs, and remains reliable.

As a Principal Engineer, you will serve as a technical authority and force multiplier, leading architectural decisions across distributed and cloud-native systems to translate business strategy into durable technical direction. Spanning multiple teams and domains, you will bring clarity to ambiguity, raise engineering standards, and mentor senior talent while remaining accountable for real production outcomes. This is a hands-on, high-impact role for leaders who drive success through influence and shape the foundational platforms that the entire organization depends on.

## Organizational Focus Areas

Principal Engineers at GitLab drive strategy across our most critical infrastructure and delivery groups. Role placement across the following tracks is determined by business need and organizational priority.

### Production Engineering (Infrastructure Platforms)

This track leads high-impact platform initiatives for our multi-tenant SaaS infrastructure. You will lead the technical roadmap across key areas of Production Engineering to ensure our global operations remain resilient and modern.

• Core Focus: Lead strategy and execution of our multi-tenant SaaS infrastructure in collaboration with other Platform teams..

• Collaboration: Partner with Database Operations and Cells teams to align production engineering efforts with the overall platform strategy.

This track builds GitLab’s next generation, multi-tenant, horizontally scalable, and resilient SaaS platform. You will architect the foundations that enable other engineering teams to build upon this platform and drive convergence among GitLab’s various platforms..

• Core Focus: Lead the design and evolution of projects that enable our distributed, multi-tenant SaaS transformation, including Cells, Organizations, and OrgMover.

• Distributed Architecture: Architect for zero downtime, transparent relocation, and application hardening in a massive distributed environment.

• Strategic Decisions: Guide architecture decisions with availability, reliability, resiliency, performance, and cost in mind.

The GitLab Delivery track focuses on enhancing the reliability, efficiency, and speed of GitLab’s end-to-end software delivery across all platforms and offerings.

• Core Focus: Lead the platform strategy spanning Developer Experience, CI infrastructure, packaging, and release delivery across SaaS, Self-Managed, and Dedicated.

• Developer Experience: Treat GitLab engineers as customers, building self-service tooling, testing infrastructure, and paved paths that increase velocity while maintaining quality.

• Delivery at Scale: Architect reliable, automated pipelines that streamline how GitLab is packaged, released, and deployed across all platforms and offerings.

• Own and drive the architectural direction for critical infrastructure platforms that support GitLab at global scale.

• Lead the design and evolution of large platforms and distributed systems that are scalable, resilient, secure, and cost-efficient.

• Serve as the technical authority on complex initiatives, guiding decisions that impact multiple teams and product areas.

• Translate business and product strategy into long-term technical roadmaps and execution plans.

• Drive alignment across engineering, product, and leadership by clearly communicating tradeoffs and recommendations.

• Establish technical standards and architectural patterns that raise quality and consistency across the organization.

• Be accountable for production outcomes, including reliability, performance, and operational excellence.

• Mentor senior engineers and act as a force multiplier through influence rather than direct authority.

• Operate effectively in ambiguous problem spaces where both the problem and the solution need to be defined.

• Proven experience designing and evolving large-scale platforms or distributed systems in cloud-native environments.

• Strong proficiency in Golang and/or Ruby, with the ability to contribute to, review, and guide core architectural changes in production codebases.

• Strong architectural judgment, including the ability to balance scalability, reliability, performance, security, and cost.

• Experience owning platform-level technical decisions that impacted multiple teams or an entire engineering domain.

• Solid understanding of Kubernetes-based environments as a production platform, including how they influence system design, deployment models, reliability, and operational complexity.

• Experience being accountable for production systems, not just design recommendations.

• Ability to author and drive long-term technical strategy and multi-month roadmaps.

• Track record of leading through influence and shaping technical direction without direct authority.

• Comfort making high-impact technical decisions, including build vs buy vs partner tradeoffs.

• Strong communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts to engineers, leadership, and non-technical stakeholders.

The Principal Engineer role sits within GitLab’s Infrastructure Platforms organization, working across multiple teams to shape how our platform scales and operates. This group is responsible for some of GitLab’s most critical systems, including the multi-tenant SaaS platform, core delivery pipelines, and the underlying infrastructure that powers millions of users. As a Principal Engineer, you’ll define technical direction, guide architectural decisions, and ensure our platforms remain resilient, performant, and modern. The team operates fully remotely and collaborates asynchronously across time zones, grounded in GitLab’s values of transparency, autonomy, and open communication. You’ll help the organization tackle complex distributed systems challenges at scale while mentoring other engineers and building a culture focused on reliability, efficiency, and continuous improvement.

The base salary range for this role’s listed level is currently for residents of the United States only. This range is intended to reflect the role's base salary rate in locations throughout the US. Grade level and salary ranges are determined through interviews and a review of education, experience, knowledge, skills, abilities of the applicant, equity with other team members, alignment with market data, and geographic location. The base salary range does not include any bonuses, equity, or benefits. See more information on our benefits and equity. Sales roles are also eligible for incentive pay targeted at up to 100% of the offered base salary.

United States Salary Range
$171,400—$367,200 USD

#### How GitLab Supports Full-Time Employees

• [Benefits to support your health, finances, and well-being](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/benefits/general-and-entity-benefits/)

• [Flexible Paid Time Off](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/paid-time-off/)

• [Team Member Resource Groups](https://about.gitlab.com/company/culture/inclusion/erg-guide/#:~:text=Definition%20of%20the%20TMRG%20%2D%20Team%20Member%20Resource%20Groups,-TMRGs%20are%20voluntary&text=The%20purpose%20for%20this%20type,developing%20the%20sense%20of%20belonging.)

• [Equity Compensation & Employee Stock Purchase Plan](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/stock-options/)

• [Growth and Development Fund](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/learning-and-development/growth-and-development/)

• [Parental leave](https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/total-rewards/benefits/general-and-entity-benefits/#parental-leave)

• [Home office](https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/finance/expenses/#equipment) support

Country Hiring Guidelines:GitLab hires new team members in countries around the world. All of our roles are remote, however some roles may carry specific location-based eligibility requirements. Our Talent Acquisition team can help answer any questions about location after starting the recruiting process.

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